QR Codes: A Unique Way for Authors to Bridge Offline and Online Media in Book Marketing
As the societal tides have turned since the pandemic in 2020, most businesses have disposed of paper materials like menus, handouts, flyers, and pamphlets. They replaced those physical items with QR codes linking to a landing page with the same information. That means as an author, you can confidently assume your readers— although they might not know the name “QR code”— definitely have knowledge on how to use them, thus, will be able to utilize the code to your application. What are QR Codes? QR, or quick response, codes are the square...
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The One Tip That Will Bring Your Settings To Life
I will share my advice to write great descriptions so you can make your scenes as visual as the graphics you create on Book Brush! Have you ever wondered how to incorporate your setting in your scenes without boring the reader? I often notice that authors adopt two alternatives when describing their scene’s location. The first is to offer a chunk of description at the beginning. Quick, like the reaping of a bandage. I can almost hear the author saying, “That didn’t hurt, right?” And then, they promise never to mention it again. The second...
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My 8 Favorite Book Marketing Strategies
In today’s publishing landscape, authors must develop and implement an effective marketing strategy for every book launch. Finding strategies that work, identifying the ones that don’t, then making necessary adjustments for the next launch will help get your books in front of your ideal readers. Every time I launch a book, I learn something new about marketing. I’ve also made plenty of mistakes along the way. Before my first book was published, I mistakenly believed “everyone” would want to read my work. In reality, there’s an ideal audience...
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5 Tips for a Successful Book Signing
OMG! I’m an introvert, what have I done? Yes, you signed up for an author event, now what? If you’re second-guessing yourself that’s natural, if you’re not that’s fine too. There isn’t just one right way to approach a book signing. If this is your first public appearance just think of it very simply, it’s a way for you to meet readers face to face, some who love your work and others who are about to love your work. There are a few key things you need to think about and decide in advance. But don’t worry, hopefully, we’ll cover your questions...
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Top Tips for Marketing YA books
There’s a popular theory in the indie publishing world that only sexy books sell. Well, that’s not true for me. I have tried writing in New Adult, a genre that allows you more freedoms than Young Adult because of the age of the characters, but they don’t sell anything compared to my YA books do. I have also heard other authors say their YA books don’t sell as many copies as their New adult or adult books do. Why is that? I have a few theories myself. The following are my observations after being in the indie publishing world for 10 years....
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10 Amazing Marketing Images for Your Book Series
1. Gotta Love Book Brush Like all the skills we need as an author, we improve our marketing and covers with practice and with choosing easy to use programs. For some odd reason I struggled with Canva. And yet…Book Brush works for my brain. And of course, blogs help. https://bookbrush.com/blog/ If there’s some Book Brush task I’m awkward with I watch one of Kathleen’s explanatory webinars or read a blog and then dive in – like using background removal or cover creation. The more I use, the more I love about Book Brush. 2. Fonts Here’s...
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The Making of a Successful Author
One of the particular problems in the indie author world is that there are so many moving parts to manage: not just the writing, but the edits, the cover art, the advertising, the bookkeeping, the multi-author projects, the social media posts, the audiobooks, the translations… Any and all of these can easily consume your available brain space—or, through the sheer number of tasks, exhaust you before you’ve even started one of them. Even worse? Too often, we spend the time, the effort, the blood, sweat, and tears, without first figuring...
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5 Kindle Vella Tips For Authors
What in the world is Kindle Vella? By now, most indie authors have heard of and participated in Kindle Vella, Amazon’s newest platform for authors. If you haven’t heard of it, then here is your chance to find out a little bit about it and what it can do for established and new indie authors alike. Follow this link to find out more about Kindle Vella on Amazon. Amazon has given indie authors the opportunity to publish their stories into the world of fiction and non-fiction since 2007 through Kindle Direct Publishing or KDP for short. New...
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How I Used Book Brush to Support a Chirp Deal
Audiobook retailer Chirp Books is known for offering fantastic daily deals to its listeners. When I learned that A Royal Scandals Christmas: Three Holiday Novellas would be a Featured Deal in December, I knew Book Brush would be the ideal tool to bring the sale to readers’ attention. Video Trailer When notified about the upcoming sale, I double-checked the book’s metadata to ensure it was current on my website and all retail platforms. The book’s video trailer was outdated, so I created a new one using tips I had learned in Book Brush’s Book...
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How to Brand your Author Website for Maximum Impact
Have you ever walked by a shop window with a display so gorgeous, unique, or curious that you just had to step inside? In the space of a single glance, the shop proved it knew your taste and piqued your curiosity. With just a few feet of real estate, it convinced you that today you were going to have an experience you’d remember for a long time to come. This is the power of a strong brand, and it’s entirely in your power to cast a similar spell with your author website. All it takes is a thimble-full of know-how, a dash of reflection, and the...
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